David Tory took the podium at Boston’s posh Four Seasons Hotel last week, surrounded by lots of friends of the family to announce what he described as a momentous piece of technology, the Open Software Foundation’s Distributed Computing Environment selection. Tory hailed it for its interoperability, not just across Unix systems, but across OS/2, VMS and open systems – a layered technology cutting across operating systems and embracing the whole industry. Taking a poke at Sun Microsystems’ competing Open Network Computing/Network File System technology, he said that partial solutions already exist, but dismissed them as affording connections, not true interoperability, which of course allows users real freedom of choice in the equipment they select. Jonathan Gossels, the business area manager res went on to detail what the Foundation’s open process can do, making a point of IBM’s press release saying that IBM will incorporate elements of the Distributed Environment within its Systems Applications Architecture.

Glorying

Glorying in this early endorsement, Gossels said it convinces OSF that this is the stable platform needed for some time. The chosen technologies, described in the IBM press release as including major elements of the DEcorum proposal in contrast to Software Foundation president David Tory’s denial that it was DEcorum, include two categories. The first is fundamental distributed services, providing tools for software developers to create end user services for distributed computing, including remote procedure call software, naming and directory services, security services, time services, personal computer integration and parallel programming support. The second category is data sharing services to provide end users with distributed file services, including diskless operation capability and MS-DOS file and printer support – these aspects are covered by the technologies chosen from Microsoft with Hewlett, Transarc and Sun Microsystems. Diskless operation extensions to Transarc’s AFS adaption of the Carnegie-Mellon Andrew distributed file system are a joint effort between Transarc and Hewlett-Packard. Transarc’s AFS is described as providing file sharing services compatible with Network File System, and the one-year old Transarc was described as having five years experience with the Sun product. Sun’s contribution is described as PC-NFS, but Sun itself points out that the Foundation has not licensed PC-NFS, but is supporting only the server portion, already in the public domain, for user authentication and print spooling. There is a rumour making the rounds that Sun withdrew its technology from the Foundation Request back in January and effectively put itself out of the running. –

By Maureen O’Gara

Actually Sun says it did withdraw NFS.3 technology because it would not have been able to produce a shippable version before August and the Foundation was insistent on June. However, NFS.2 and all its future upgrades remained a submission. Sun and the Foundation also failed to come to terms on Network File System as part of OSF/1 last year, reportedly because the latter was demanding a royalty-free licence. As already reported, it subsequently went to Berkeley to achieve its Network File System compatibility. Foundation spokesman Doug Hartman suggested that Unix International should give the new distributed computing technology serious consideration, and adopt it to unite the industry. However, at least one Unix International member, Sun Microsystems, said it had no intention of licensing the thing. There is no reason to. ONC (Sun’s Open Network Computing) is the de facto standard, we have a responsibility to our installed ONC base and will continue support for ONC. OSF has passed up the opportunity to unite the industry and has chosen a competing technology. It will now be up to the market to decide. On the most controversial choice, that of the underlying remote procedure call protocols, the Foundation’s Doug Hartman, director of Request for Technology and validation engineering, called the Netw

ork Computing System RPC originating from Apollo Computer as the best available today – we looked at everything else. According to Hartman the applications developer can use his experience with non-network systems and move over without a refresher course. He can be up and programming within a few hours. The version of Network Computing System taken by the Foundation, however, is an enhanced version co-developed with DEC, not the product available on the market today. The Kerberos technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology again with Hewlett-Packard extensions – controls network access to information. From DEC comes time service – small useful services, said Hartman – and threads. DEC’s naming service was described as the premier naming service available today. As to availability, the DEC technology will be released in three stages. First comes a snapshot for members, probably in July said Hartman. Then, during 1990 will come the integration of the first components. During 1991 (late 1991 say the sceptical), will come preliminary delivery to users. Hartman also mentioned that both IBM and Bull were offering their services in an effort to speed the delivery of the technology. The Foundation was also at pains to point out that all individual technologies are available today. Hartman said that Unix International’s Roadmap indicated that it would take them to 1993-4 to get to distributed computing. Pricing has not yet been decided, and won’t be before June, but will be based on market conditions. David Tory emphasised that the decision had been made through the Foundation’s open process, and was the result of exhaustive efforts to select the best technology – a reaction to the fact that the only significant omission from the Foundation member-dominated DEcorum submission was the IBM/Locus transparent computing facility. But Transarc president Alfred Spector admitted the submission was DEcorum: they just don’t want to appear to have swallowed DEcorum whole, they want to look like men standing on their own two feet.

Won’t get rich

I just wish they had a name for it, today. Spector said he doesn’t expect to get rich from the decision to use the AFS distributed file system – what they are paying is a reasonable return. But Transarc has its eye not on this ball, but on the next. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania firm expects to have additional products down the line that focus on transaction processing – hence the trans in Transarc. Netwise, the firm that offered its RPC compiler tool in conjunction with Sun, points out that Network Computing System is not currently Open Systems Interconnection compliant, and that no conformance or migration strategy has up to now been articulated. Netwise also says Network Computing System is a closed, monolithic architecture, inherited from its origins in the proprietary Apollo Domain environment. And as a tailpiece, insiders say that there are two sets of visuals of the thing floating around: one for the press and one for the board. The ones the press saw refer merely to Transarc or to Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard’s LM/X. Those for the board, it’s said, play to their egos by referring to HP’s LM/X or IBM/Transarc, since Big Blue owns a piece of the start-up.